The Nikon D800 – First Thoughts by Scott Bourne.

Too many megapixels Scott Bourne says? Only good for video? Betting a lot of money that the D800E will be noisier than its sibling? Well, every point about 36mp is only good for video is actually silly. But otherwise, he makes some good arguments on the other issues:

"Physics are physics. If you cram three times the pixels onto a sensor that is the same size as you used when your camera had 1/3 the pixels, something’s got to give. Yes the camera companies have come up with some neat tricks to make each pixel gather more light than it would have in the old days, but three times the pixels???

What this tells me is there is a bunch of back-end processing from the new processor that will make the image look smoother. Looking at the few still samples I’ve seen – they are a bit soft when it comes to details. This is no doubt why Nikon is releasing a D800E – canceling the antialiasing properties of the OLPF inside the camera. But I’d bet a bunch of money that’s not going to make the low-light religion shooters happy because eliminating that filter – WILL create noisier pics. Period. End of discussion.

So why 36MP? My guess is that Nikon is really betting on this being more of a video camera. The cinematic resolution you get from 36MP is probably more important to Nikon and their target audience for this camera than low-light performance with good detail. The video sample I’ve seen is tremendous. It looks very good for a $3000 camera."

The D800/D800E is finally upon us. Most of the specs have been know beforehand, but still, some surprises managed to escape the leaky chorus. The cameras can already be pre-ordered at various places. (D800 and D800E preorder links at Amazon, D800E at B&H) We have included press releases from both Nikon UK and US. . . . read more

Nikon's first forray into the deep waters of 16 Mpixels brings some oohs amd mehs too:
"Our tests reveal that the Nikon D7000 is an excellent camera capable of capturing a high level of detail across the full sensitivity range. However, getting the best from it requires a little bit more than is provided in the AF-S DX Nikkor